6 | FEBRUARY 16 • 2023 

1942 - 2023

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opinion

The Kotel Belongs to All Jews

PURELY COMMENTARY

Editor’s Note: The Times of Israel reported 
on Feb. 9 that the Israeli government back-
tracked and said it would not move for-
ward with the proposed Kotel restrictions 
bill. Prime Minister Netanyahu said, “The 
status quo at the Kotel, which is precious to 
all Jews, will be kept precisely as it is today.
”

A

ryeh Deri, a convicted criminal, 
who served time in prison and 
only last year admitted that he 
was also guilty of tax evasion, is now 
urging the government to introduce leg-
islation to “preserve the sanctity of the 
Western Wall and the adjacent plaza.”
Among the clauses of the bill that is 
being proposed are ones 
that forbid the conducting 
of any religious ceremo-
ny that does not conform 
with the practices of the 
chief rabbinate; providing 
religious services not sanc-
tioned by the Rabbi of the 
Kotel; and reading Torah, 

wearing a tallit or laying tefillin in the 
women’s section of the Kotel.
Those found guilty of infringing the law 
would face three months in jail or a fine 
of 10,000 shekels (about $2,800)! 
A short history of the Kotel is in 
order. It was never part of the edifice of 
the Temple as some mistakenly believe 
but was built by King Herod in the first 
pre-Christian century to enlarge the area 
of the Temple Mount.
A photo of the Kotel from 1880 shows 
men and women praying together. When 
we went to the Kotel in 1967 following 
the Six-Day War, men, women and chil-
dren, religious and secular, flocked there 
together. There was no mechitzah sepa-
rating men from women and no Rabbi of 
the Kotel to tell us what we could or could 
not do. Only later would the haredim 
claim it as their own.
But the Kotel is not theirs. It is part of 
our national heritage and belongs to all 
Jews both in Israel and in the diaspora. 
Just as the Jewish world is pluralistic, so 

the Kotel must be pluralistic and open to 
all who wish to worship there.
Denying that right and enshrining that 
in legislation would be just one more 
step toward Israel becoming a halachic 
state. 

Michael Boyden made aliyah from the U.K. in 1985, 

is a former president of the Israel Council of Reform 

Rabbis and is currently rabbi of Kehilat Yonatan in 

Hod Hasharon, Israel.

Michael 
Boyden
Times of 
Israel

